Investigation of nutrition information and eating behaviors of high school students

This correlational research was conducted to evaluate the level of knowledge, nutritional behaviors and habits of adolescents about nutrition and to develop recommendations according to the results of the evaluation. The universe of the research consists of the 9th-10th-11th-12th grade students of 17 high schools in Kırklareli city center. A stratified sampling method was used as the sampling method. A total of 307 students, 105 boys and 202 girls, participated in the study. According to the study, 56% of the students have "very good", 32.2% "good", 10.4% "moderate" and 1,3% "bad" nutritional knowledge levels. The eating behavior of 65.5% of the students is at a good level. While 31.6% of them are at a moderate level, only 2.9% of them are at a very good level. It was observed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the nutritional knowledge levels of the students and their eating behaviors (p<0.05). This relationship is positive and weak. Accordingly, as the nutritional knowledge levels of the students increase, their positive eating behaviors also increase significantly (weak strength). The study reveals the importance of nutrition education. In order for nutrition education to be more effective, activities that encourage behavior change can be planned. According to our research, the factors affecting eating behavior are nutritional knowledge, exercise frequency, pocket money levels and gender. Factors affecting nutritional knowledge are the education level of the father and the family type of the students.